Job Satisfaction in the Canadian Public Service: Mitigating Toxicity With Interests

• Author: Jocelyn McGrandle
• Date: 01 September 2019
• Published date: 01 September 2019
• DOI: 10.1177/0091026018819026
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026018819026

Public Personnel Management

2019, Vol. 48(3) 369 –391

© The Author(s) 2018

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/0091026018819026

journals.sagepub.com/home/ppm

Article

Job Satisfaction in the

Canadian Public Service:

Mitigating Toxicity With

Interests

Jocelyn McGrandle1

Abstract

During the 2015 Canadian federal election, political parties were polarized

over the issue of job satisfaction in the public service. Critics and public service

unions argued that there was a toxic environment under the leadership of Prime

Minister Stephen Harper, and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau promised, if elected,

to remedy this toxicity. Therefore, the job satisfaction of federal employees was

a campaign promise of the now elected Liberals. Improving job satisfaction is not

simple, as there are many competing factors impacting it. This study measures job

satisfaction of Canadian public servants in 2014 and concludes that job satisfaction

remained fairly high across the board, even under Stephen Harper, and that by

far the strongest predictor of job satisfaction is how well employees’ interests

match their job, followed by the relationship with their immediate supervisor,

relationships with colleagues, and skills. Thus, human resource management

policies are essential in improving job satisfaction.

Keywords

job satisfaction, public sector work environment, Canada

Introduction

Over the past 5 years in the Canadian political landscape, there have been numerous

calls for rejuvenating the federal public service due to toxic work cultures and a gen-

eral disrespect for public servants (Fekete, 2014; Jeffrey, 2015; May, 2016). Much of

1Concordia University, Montreal, Québec, Canada

Corresponding Author:

Jocelyn McGrandle, Concordia University, 1455 Boul. De Maisonneuve O., Montreal, Québec, Canada

H3G 1M8.

Email: Jocelyn.mcgrandle@mail.mcgill.ca

819026PPMXXX10.1177/0091026018819026Public Personnel ManagementMcGrandle

research-article2018

370 Public Personnel Management 48(3)

this was directed at the Conservative government under Stephen Harper, so much so

that prior to the 2015 election, Canada’s largest public service union engaged in an

extensive anti-Harper, anti-Conservative Party ad campaign. While the ads did not

advocate voting for any particular party or candidate, they were distinctly against

Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party, and included online and radio commer-

cials, billboards, posters, as well as interviews from PSAC (Public Service Alliance of

Canada) representatives (Woods, 2015). Furthermore, knowledge of this poor working

environment spurred Liberal leader Justin Trudeau to pen an open letter to all public

servants promising a change to improve levels of respect and morale if elected

(Trudeau, 2015).

With the election of Trudeau and his Liberal party in 2015, and these accusations of

excessively low morale in the public service under the Conservative government of

Stephen Harper (2006-2015), improving morale and the overall job satisfaction of

employees is certainly relevant to policy makers. According to the literature, an

increased focus on job satisfaction can yield both utilitarian and humanitarian benefits

(Ellickson, 2002; Spector, 1997; Westover & Taylor, 2010; Yang & Lee, 2009). From

a purely utilitarian perspective, lower levels of job satisfaction have impacted organi-

zations negatively through increased absenteeism (Johns, 1987) and turnover (Hur,

2013; Locke, 1976; Pitts, Marvel, & Fernandez, 2011; Yang & Lee, 2009). From a

more humanitarian perspective, concern with job satisfaction involves the belief that

employees deserve to be treated well and with respect. This in turn can lead to better

levels of physical and emotional well-being for employees (Spector, 1997). In other

words, improving job satisfaction can lead to higher levels of organizational perfor-

mance and lower costs, something public sectors around the world are actively seeking

to achieve. These reasons ring particularly true in the Canadian federal public service,

which has made job satisfaction a focal point in the past to improve morale and perfor-

mance, as seen with La Relève in the 1990s. Briefly, La Relève was a package of

public sector rejuvenation policies under the direction of Clerk of the Privy Council

Jocelyne Bourgon and Prime Minister Jean Chrétien designed to reduce public sector

employees’ discontent, frustration, and even crisis of identity after years of cuts and

downsizing (Johnson & Molloy, 2009).

Job satisfaction has been studied extensively across the world. Generally, the semi-

nal text on job satisfaction is traced back to Happock in 1935 (Reiner & Zhao, 1999;

Schyns & Croon, 2006; Taylor & Westover, 2011), with an increase in studies over the

last 40 years (Ellickson, 2002; Westover & Taylor, 2010). Similarly, job satisfaction

has been examined at length in Canada, but primarily in the health field, with a focus

on nurses (see Barrett & Myrick, 1998; Best & Thurston, 2006; Cummings et al.,

2008; Graham, Davies, Woodend, Simpson, & Mantha, 2011) physicians (see Lloyd,

Streiner, & Shannon, 1994; Richardsen & Burke, 1991), and care professionals (see

Grunfeld et al., 2000; Krueger et al., 2002). Other studies in the Canadian context

focused on the role of union membership and job satisfaction (Renaud, 2002); the

relationship between job satisfaction and high-involvement work design across

Canadian industries (Mohr & Zoghi, 2008); the relationship between various immi-

grant groups and job satisfaction (Magee & Umamaheswar, 2011); as well as the